RIAA: Are you scared?

[Goatweed]

I'm more scared of my ISP telling me I download too much and if I don't stop they'll can my ass.

On my main pc, I've currently got close to 80 gigs of music - and when I use kazaa or DC I fully share it. Most times I scour IRC or the newsgroups for tunes (as well as some message boards and FTP's) and I doubt the RIAA is gonna come knocking down my door. These lawsuits are scare tactics, nothing more. They've gone so far as to make PSA's and commercials asking people not to download anymore because "it's wrong" - which to me means they're running out of options to stop it. They talk a tough game, but every poll or article that I've read that asks "will you or have you stopped or slowed down your music downloading" has come up overwhelmingly "no".

Again, maybe if these record companies pushed their artisits to mae good music, or hell maybe charge you and me a normal price for one of these cd's, then maybe we'd be inclined to buy more then download. Where is the justification in charging upwards of $18 for a CD? I can buy a DVD for $20 that has a 2 hour movie, deleted scenes, extras. the whole nine yards - but a CD has 12-15 songs, one or two of which might be worth keeping.

I remember when cd's first came out they were expensive, the talk was "since it's a new technology, it'll be pricey but eventually it'll come down as it becomes the norm". Well, that prved true for cd players, but what about the cd's? And I dont wanna hear that the huge price tag is because they record company pays the artist a shitload of cash - thats bullshit and everyone knows it. Artists typically make their $$ touring and/or through huge contractual deals. The recording industry has become a joke.

[madmick]

A well known Entertainment Lawyer told me that record company's make back there initial investment after the first 50,000 Cd's are sold. The rest is pure gravy.

He said; "It's like printing money."

[Kid Afrika]

Yeah, no.

Since I don't use p2p programs, I and not concerned in the least.

At least for now, my method remains as safe as safe can be. However, I'm sure that as soon as they stop going after p2p, usenet is next.

[Flock of Moosen]

I have to say yes and no.
Yes, for the fact that they may decide to go after small infractors as well to prove a point that no one is safe and
No, because I only have 100 songs at this time and I'm way under the limit of their "list of infractions". Plus I make sure to immediately take them out of my shared folder once they are downloaded so they can't be seen.

In case you aren't aware of this, the newest version of Kazaa Lite (K++ 2.4.2) adds added protection against organizations like RIAA from seeing what you are doing. It's a cool feature. Not sure if it really works, but it's nice to know it's there to possibly protect us.
Here is the exact description of the feature:

Block Bad IP Ranges

This will prevent a lot of IPs from making a connection with your Kazaa Lite K++. It mostly blocks organisations that try to monitor illegal filesharing activity or that try to spread fake files on the network.

Either way, I plan on deleting all my songs on December 23rd. The last thing I want is for this to happen. :lol:

[FollowThisLogic]

Originally posted by Flock of Moosen
Either way, I plan on deleting all my songs on December 23rd. The last thing I want is for this to happen. :lol:

That's pretty scary.... reminds me of how scared everyone got when this happened....

[The Brain]

Allow me to introduce... <a href=http://msn.com.com/2100-1105_2-5063402.html?part=msn&subj=ns&tag=nl target=new>Earthstation 5</a>. Of course, maybe we should take it with a grain of salt, given that it is located in Palestinian territory, but that is actually the system's main selling point-- because the territory of Palestine has such weak copyright property laws, users are practically immune from companies trying to hunt them down.

Obviously, since it's fairly new, it still has to work the proverbial bugs out, but it promises to be more secure in terms of anonymity in comparison to KaZaA or Morpheus.

[SO]

A 12-year-old Manhattan girl is one of 261 people sued for copying music
Yep, way to endear yourselves to the consumer public. What baffles me about this article though, is this quote:

Her mother says her daughter paid $29.99 for [Kazaa] three months ago.

WTF?????

[FollowThisLogic]

That would be Kazaa Plus, the adware-free version for people who don't know about Kazaa Lite.

[SO]

There's a sucker born every minute

[The Brain]

Her mother says her daughter paid $29.99 for [Kazaa] three months ago.

Originally posted by FollowThisLogic
That would be Kazaa Plus, the adware-free version for people who don't know about Kazaa Lite.

Alternately, you could download the latest version of KaZaA, and then install <a href=http://www.kazaahack.net/ target=new>Kazaa Hack</a>. It has built in security features that increase your anonymity and disable internet ads (not sure if it blocks out the built in adware completely), as well as hacks for your "Participation Level" (so you get higher priority in downloads), and the ability to search for items indefinitely.